Bangalore Bio 2003, which has been affected to a certain extent with a handful of international speakers backing out due to the unforeseen international circumstances, is still going ahead in full team with a total number of participating stalls going up to 121 this year compared to last year's 72 participants. In terms of exhibition space this year, it has increased by 1017 sq. m and is 1947 sq. m compared to last year's 930 sq.m.

At the pre-event press conclave here today, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, head, Vision Group on Biotechnology in Karnataka said that several new elements are added in this year's event like the Bio-Business awards and the Knowledge Pavilion. The announcement of the Biotech Park, which ran into several hurdles in the last few months, will also be made.

The theme of the event is 'Indian Biotechnology-Building a global business'. The event will showcase the academia, industry and research institutes initiatives. According to Shaw building a brand like Biotechnology takes a long time and Bangalore Bio is looked up as a capability of national and state developments in the sector. The event has also taken the opportunity to launch ABLE (Association of Biotech Led Entrepreneurs) formally to highlight biotech is spearheading a national revolution.

There is an award for the best stalls for which the jury is headed by Justice N Venkatachala, head of the Lok Ayukta, the investigation arm of the government of Karnataka.

On the Biotech Park, D B Inamdar, minister for information technology and biotechnology said that the location of the Park in the Electronics City was ideal as there were several information technology companies already having a presence there, biotech sector could capitalise the infrastructure there.